Share via

Loose XAML is Back!

  • Article

One of the most exciting features that we slipped back into Windows Presentation Foundation ("Avalon") with the PDC release is Loose XAML. Loose XAML was cut back in March of this year, and its loss was greatly lamented (well, I'm exaggerating a bit, but it was a popular request on the MSDN Feedback Center).

Loose XAML is basically the capability that allows you to open any XAML file on your hard disk (or a hyperlink on a web page) and "run" it within a browser without compilation. You can't embed any code within the XAML document - it has to just be pure XAML itself - so it's not suitable for building a large-scale application; however it's certainly a nice little feature for trying out a little XAML code or for something like a small animation that you might embed into a web page. Anyway, we've relented our stubborn and incalcitrant ways (actually, we've spent the last six months building a secure partial trust sandbox for in-browser applications) and this capability is now back.

If you have the September CTP of the WinFX Runtime Components installed on your machine, you can see Loose XAML for yourself by downloading the target of this link to your desktop and double-clicking on it. If all goes well, you should see this blog entry replaced by a small Avalon sample that demonstrates using a VisualBrush to create a reflection visual effect. Running it directly by clicking on the link doesn't work successfully right now - I'm presuming there's something not quite right in the partial trust security sandbox in this release (perhaps I'm inadvertently using something that's not supported in partial trust), so make sure you save it to disk first. Cool, isn't it?

Comments

  • Anonymous
    September 22, 2005
    Very cool. As a designer, this would make it much easier to share my designs while in draft. In the future, what will need to be installed on the client in order to view the loose XAML? Just Vista, WinFX, SDK, XAMLPad?
    Also, when's your next XAML Screencast going to hit Channel9? In the first episode you mentioned it would be a series, but there appears to be only the first episode so far.
    Much Appreciated, Dean
  • Anonymous
    September 22, 2005
    The comment has been removed
  • Anonymous
    October 02, 2005
    I was one fo those who was lamenting, long live xaml for the people! :)
  • Anonymous
    January 28, 2006
    Nice one Tim - I borrowed this today as I was having trouble figuring out how to size the reflection and rotate it although it's obvious once you've seen it.

    Also :-) I hadn't played with setting up a Visual Brush declaratively before which is very cool.

    Mike.